High Society (1956) [4K Ultra HD]

Director: Charles Walters

Cast: Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra

Release Date: June 24, 2025

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Disc Rating: 8/10

Synopsis:

Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly and Frank Sinatra romp elegantly through the scenic, moneyed grounds and waters of outwardly elitist Newport, Rhode Island, in this hip, witty musical version of Philip Barry’s The Philadelphia Story. Legendary Louis Armstrong as himself, plays his trumpet and narrates in prose and song the peccadillos of his songwriter friend C.K. Dexter Haven (Crosby), his beautiful perfectionist ex-wife Tracy Samantha Lord (Kelly, in her final film role), and her stuffy fiancée George Kittredge (John Lund). Sinatra and wise-cracking Celeste Holm are a scandal sheet reporter and photographer who arrive to cover the wedding and complicate the tangled romances. Armstrong and his composer buddy conspire musically and by other devious means to stop Tracy’s marriage. Dexter wants her back, but she takes off with the magazine writer – all of which gives everybody wonderful excuses to break into the incomparable songs of Cole Porter. M-G-M pulled out all the stops to make High Society a must-see screen event back in 1956, even arranging to license Paramount’s magnificent widescreen process VistaVision, to ensure the film would be something special. Now meticulously restored and remastered from its original VistaVision negative, and accompanied by a thrilling new Dolby Atmos remixed soundtrack (as well as the film’s original theatrical mono optical soundtrack), this long-awaited release is sure to be most welcomed by fans of this box-office smash.

‘High Society’ invites viewers to a musical wedding celebration for the ages. The film accompanies C.K. Dexter Haven as he arrives to visit his old in-laws and attend the wedding of his beautiful ex-wife Tracy Samantha Lord and her bland new fiancé George Kittredge; personally hoping to find an opportunity to win her back before she ties the knot anew. Unfortunately, this already difficult task becomes all the more complicated when a reporter and photographer join in order to document the events in return for shutting down a hit-piece about the woman’s powerful father and the reporter soon finds himself infatuated with the bride-to-be and determined to win her over as well.

‘High Society’ is directed by Charles Walters from a screenplay written by John Patrick and from the play by Philip Barry, Walters does a great job guiding along the music-filled fun, heart and humor throughout. The film’s noteworthy cast includes Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Celeste Holm, John Lund, Louis Calhern, Sidney Blackmer and Louis Armstrong and his band who all do a nice job in each of their respective roles and help to complement the tale in their own right throughout.

‘High Society’ first made its theatrical debut in 1956, arranging to license the rewarding VistaVision widescreen format to offer an even more gorgeous and memorable presentation upon its release and perhaps even helping to propel it to become a box-office smash. The film may be dated in a few departments but it never detracts from the fun, humor and heart that it exudes throughout, not to mention a collection of marvelous musical numbers that benefit tremendously from the contributions of star Frank Sinatra, in addition to the legendary Louis Armstrong who offers plenty of delightful, toe-tapping numbers on his trumpet while narrating the tale throughout via prose. Filled with humorous chaos, one conflicting situation and event after another and a great deal of gorgeous surroundings and unique characters that help keep the fun and relatability working along the way.

Based upon Philip Barry’s ‘The Philadelphia Story’, ‘High Society’ stays true to many of the story elements while turning the story into a light, witty and kindhearted musical that has won the adoration of movie lovers for well over half of a century; if you haven’t ever had the pleasure of this one but tend to enjoy cinematic classics of the same variety, then you will almost certainly want to make a point of giving ‘High Society’ a whirl whenever you have the opportunity, especially with it now available in stunning 4K for the first time ever.

The beloved 1956 film classic ‘High Society’ arrives home in glorious 4K UHD for the first time courtesy of the Warner Archive Collection. The release features the classic film in full Ultra High Definition with Dolby Vision and HDR-10, meticulously restored and remastered from its original VistaVision negative and looking absolutely spectacular in almost every way. If the marvelous new UHD presentation wasn’t quite enough to do the trick, it’s also accompanied by a new Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 compatible) soundtrack that offers some new expansion and immersion to the experience; also including the original mono optical soundtrack on top of it in order to offer fans their choice of listening formats. The release also features a handful of fun extras and a Blu-ray copy of the film (sourced from the same new remaster) and the result is another outstanding 4K UHD release from the folks at Warner Archive Collection. If you’re a fan of ‘High Society’ that’s fully 4K capable, then this one is definitely recommended and well worth adding to your collection whenever possible.

VIDEO:

The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release of ‘High Society’ features a full 2160p Ultra High Definition presentation with Dolby Vision and HDR-10, meticulously restored and remastered from its original VistaVision negative, and presented in its original 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio. The video presentation looks marvelous as a whole and provides a clean, sharp, filmic and vibrantly colored presentation from start to finish that never suffers from any notable issues to be found along the way (although some exterior shots such as folks getting in a car look far noisier than the rest of the film). Detail is great throughout and everything from character specifics to settings and surroundings shine, while the Dolby Vision HDR complements many aspects and tidbits throughout (a great example is how noticeably the red of a tissue box pops around twenty minutes in) with solid and deep black levels behind it all. Overall, this is a wonderful Ultra High Definition presentation that should have fans of this classic film extremely thrilled.

AUDIO:

The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release features a Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 channel compatible) soundtrack, in addition to the film’s original mono soundtrack presented in DTS-HD MA 2.0 (dual mono). Please note that this review pertains solely to the Dolby TrueHD 7.1 audio presentation in regard to the Atmos option. This multichannel soundtrack is pretty nice itself and it offers a clean, crisp and occasionally immersive audio presentation throughout. It takes advantage of all seven available channels in order to send some music, crowd chatter and other little tidbits throughout the various speakers while never allowing any simultaneously occurring audio elements to be negatively affected. The original mono offering is quite nice itself and should excite those wishing to view it with the original sound format. Overall, these are both fully capable and crisp audio presentations and while the choice of which to utilize will all depend on personal preference, neither disappoints.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Warner Archive 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release of ‘High Society’ features a few fun extras that fans should enjoy. Included on the release is the Featurette ‘Cole Porter in Hollywood: True Love’ (running approximately 9 minutes in length), along with a ‘Gala Hollywood Premiere Newsreel’ (running approximately 1 minute) and ‘Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, and Frank Sinatra Radio Promotional Spots’ (approximately 15 minutes altogether). Also included is the ‘Classic MGM Cartoon: “Millionaire Droopy”’ (7 minutes) and ‘3 Original Theatrical Trailers’: ‘Bing Meets a Friend at MGM’ (4 minutes), ‘High Comedy’ (4 minutes) and ‘Together for the First Time’ (1 minute).

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Remastered Blu-Ray disc included in the release and resized. They do not represent the quality of the 4K Ultra HD disc itself and will additionally suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on the 4K UHD & Blu-Ray releases are the property of their respective owners.

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Disc Rating: 8/10

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 ‘High Society’ is Now Available to Own on 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray from Warner Archive Collection

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You can purchase ‘High Society’ on 4K UHD at Amazon HERE!

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